Alison Leigh Cowan takes a look at the history of the Van Dusen family in Sunday’s New York Times.

Andrew Van Dusen learned that he was a 12th-generation descendant of one of Manhattan’s first few hundred settlers, the operator of a windmill where the Dutch ground grain, and he has been collecting anecdotes and artifacts about his sprawling family ever since. Inside his town house on a historic cul-de-sac in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, ancestors gaze down from gilded frames: There is Andrew’s grandmother, Helen Campbell Van Dusen, along with the two men she married — consecutively — Bruce Buick Van Dusen and his older brother Theron. And there is Theron’s grandfather, Charles Theron Van Dusen, who faithfully kept a daily diary on the front lines of the Civil War.

For the 23rd summer in a row, a growing number of American Indians from tribes scattered across coastal regions of Washington State and British Columbia have climbed into traditionally designed cedar canoes and paddled as many as 40 miles a day, sometimes more, over two or three weeks, camping at a series of reservations until they converge at the home of a host tribe. There, several thousand people welcome them for a week of traditional dancing, singing and celebration.

One Response to #genealogy, #history, 7|25|2011

There are at least nine 12th generation members of this family in the LA area. Descended from Abrham, son Teuwis, son Robbert, son Tobias, son Johannes, son Jacobus, son Cornelius, son James, son Frank. His son Frank came to LA before 1931 when he died. He had four sons, Frank, William, James and Albert, all deceased. They still have children (12th gen.) and grandchilden (13) and great-grandchildren (14) living in LA county and the Southern California area.